The Flaming Lips...

I really love Heady Fwends; the middle of the album has so many great sounds. I think some truly good tunes got overshadowed by the novelty of it all. I wish they'd release all the other stuff from the limited EPs.

"I was stuck near the food court, wasn’t able to cross the airport to get to my gate. Flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne."

http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/11/19/wayne-coyne-brings-grenade-to-okc-airport-tsa-shuts-down-airport-people-miss-flights-and-lose-money/

<img src="Http://www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png";>

welcome to 1995

http://Http%3A//www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png

http://www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png

Wow, straight out of 1990.

Cool cover. Maybe it's time to revisit these guys, don't think I've listened for three or four years at this point...

It just occured to me how much teal & orange these guys have done throughout their career.

reminds me of CD bargain bins

weird, but i think i ended up listening to this mix: http://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/one-off-zygotic-after-the-flaming-lips-embryonic-2009/ more than embryonic itself.

That's what I was thinking, sean. Is it the font?

The first thing that came to mind was Under Rug Swept.

Was pretty bored with these guys until Embryonic, which is probably one of the best things they've done since the 80s, and I got all excited again. But then that Heady Fwends thing made me kind of sick of them again. Pile on that the bullshit Wayne pulled with the Badu sisters and I'm not sure if I even care anymore.

I'm hoping they've saved all the good stuff from the past few years for this. I agree w post-Embryonic lapse in quality tho i do support them cos they seem to still have a tireless work ethic. I haven't even listened to that radio drama they did yet. Was that any good?

Cool album cover tho. Not too keen on the font...

I've been waiting for a font like that for 15 years.

I just hope they stay dark and Krauty, with no bunny suits or confetti. Not that I didn't love the boombox experiments-through-Yoshimi period at the time, but man, Embryonic is a big leap upward. . .

Hmm, pretty inscrutable:

http://twitter.yfrog.com/emz41viqsrkrvykvslojeysyz
http://twitter.yfrog.com/n6czohyqgjumljbkfbeexzezz
http://twitter.yfrog.com/b9i43luijytduyvxbwxyscwnz

But this track is on the album, and it was one of the best of the weirdly-released things they were doing over the last couple years (along with parts of the 24-hour track and a few others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py6y_AHOcx0

This new record looks promising. I'm super happy that the band has gotten weird again. That whimsical happy Yoshimi phase was pretty hard to take.

Not sure why there is so much animosity towards the Heady Fwends project. I actually think it was one of the best records last year. Besides the Nick Cave track there isn't a real clunker in the bunch. The Lips were always a drug band. In the early days it seemed to be of the more "psychedelic" variety but both "Embryonic" and "Fwends" seem to emanate a "harder" vibe. And, font choices aside (does it really matter?) I sense this new record will be in the same vein as the last two. One can hope anyway.

I'm super happy that the band has gotten weird again.

did you miss embyronic?

I love Embryonic becuase it's weird. And distrurbing.

And they are putting out a Zaireeka vinyl remaster too. Which is even more insane than the CD version. I imagine four record players keep in sync w each other far less than four CD players.

Aw man i just heard the new single and it is wretched.

Cool video tho.

Oh ok it was written for a car ad.

VP of marketing at Hyundai, Steve Shannon, told Billboard, "The Flaming Lips are very much like Hyundai. They're a little offbeat. They've been around a long time and they continue to reinvent themselves."

I get this weird cockroach vibe from the Lips these days. Like, Wayne has it all figured out, and after the nuclear apocalypse, the Flaming Lips will be the only band standing.

ha a guy who managed a local record store when i was in college already thought they were cockroaches by soft bulletin. he couldn't believe the shitty noise band he saw opening for dino jr in like 1986 was now the college radio supertramp

Hah I brought a giant plastic cockroach to the first gig I saw them at ('99) and Wayne signed it.

The "Sun Blows Up Today" song, I sort of like the droney bits, but overall the production is just crap. How on Earth do you have Steven Drozd in your band and end up with drums that sound this lousy? That is unforgivable.

Don't think Drozd plays drums for the band anymore, hasn't for years.

Drodz still drums a bit on the records. Embryonic has him and Kliph Scurlock pounding away together on some tracks. Sure there are clips of this.

Thought Heady Fwends was awful, a real backwards step after the pretty great Embryonic. Sun Blows Up Today is dreadful, but as it's a non-album track I'll let em off the hook for now. Really hope the new album is a good un...

Anyone listening to the new one? Weird album.

Wow, this really is weird album. I'm glad it's nothing like Sun Blows Up Today which sounded like a At War With Mystics outake. I think I'm going to need a lot more time with it just like Embryonic. It's such an understated album, really beautiful in places.

I don't think I'm going to be able to listen to it too often. It's very slow and dense and completely absent of their zany starry-eyed optimism. That's not a bad thing, but it just seems like one of those albums you can only listen to as a whole if you want to really enjoy it. And it's not a whole that I want to listen to lots.

It's very slow and dense and completely absent of their zany starry-eyed optimism.

WANT

Yeah, really, that only makes me more interested.

I like it. I think many of you will too.

I really love Heady Fwends; the middle of the album has so many great sounds. I think some truly good tunes got overshadowed by the novelty of it all. I wish they'd release all the other stuff from the limited EPs.

I'm digging "Ashes in the Air" on Heady Fwends (the Bon Iver tune) quite a bit.

Do people think this is a "silly" record? Because I'm not hearing that based on the first three tracks.

I am curious also as to why so many folks disparage Heady Fwends. I find it fantastic nearly despite itself. One would think the very idea of a record like this is a terrible one but, I think they pull it off quite well. Can someone explain to me what they find so repellent about this? I'd love to know.

The tracks I heard seemed like repetitive jokes. I haven't listened to the whole LP, though. I never really wanted to because they didn't pick any musicians I'd really like to hear them collaborate with. I remember the Neon Indian track being particularly poor.

But I'll say I'm a big fan of bands that do these kinds of things. It seems like they really lifted themselves out of a rut after At War with the Mystics. They were coming close to being an inessential band that keeps making the same type of record. Embryonic was a nice kick in the ass and The Terror continues down that path...

This thread makes me sad. My boyhood hero Wayne Coyne is actually in real-life a total dickhead.

I've always thought he was a dick. I don't know why so many people thought othrwise.

Embryonic was a nice kick in the ass and The Terror continues down that path...

So glad to read this. Embryonic was my album of the year that year and, in my mind, possibly the best thing they've ever done. Definitely the best thing they've done since Priest Driven Ambulance. Anyway, waiting for a physical copy of the new one, but I'm pleased to hear that commercial song is NOT a indicator of this album.

It's sort of like the songs aren't even there-nothing catchy other than bum-bum-spssssh-bum-bum-bum-spsssssh-ahhhhhh-but i love the sound of this. Has that 2am-smoking-too-many-cigarettes feel. Lots of cool droning humming buzzing electronics, sounding at times like an Operating Room. The same feel Priest had, but with far more complex songs. After the Priest Driven Ambulance arrives, the Priest is joined by scientists (having finished racing for the prize). Sounds amazing! The future and the past all at once.

"You Lust" is almost Industrial Lite. Hospital Wave. Drums like breathing apparatus. Synth lines like an EKG.

Like "mbv" it sounds like something that has a lot of depth that will reward successive listens.

"Always There" has an awesome bass synth line.

Like this a lot and I couldn't get with Embryonic at all.

On first listen through. gggreeeaaatttt so far.

The Terror is so great, it's just getting better and better each time I play it. This is probably their fifth masterpiece now.

Can still picture him pounding the shit out of his little drum kit at the two shows I saw them at little Shank Hall in the mid 90s. Top ten all-time shows for me. Ronald Jones era Lips is my favorite.

I didn't get to see them that early, but I saw them a lot from Soft Bulletin on. There was a joy in watching him play the drums that was lost a little when they expanded and he switched to guitar/keyboards/whatever.

I feel like wayne has always needed someone more talented to point him in the right direction. Drozd/Jones/Donahue

I’m not sure who’s in the band now… i guess his nephew?.

This is all pretty strange but I hope Drozd is OK, given his history. Also, this comes only a year after his daughter vanished (but was thankfully found, right?).

Interview with Drozd about it all:

https://stereogum.com/2497927/its-strange-to-be-talking-about-the-flaming-lips-in-the-past-tense-an-interview-with-steven-drozd/interviews/qa

Also, what Michael Ivins does these days:

https://thelollybombs.bandcamp.com/music

Also in that interview a sort-of Ronald Jones update:

He made such remarkably bizarre sounds out of that guitar. I have no idea how he even did that.

DROZD: He was so unique. We just knew that there was no one in league with him. And we took that as a sign that it was time for us to change, so that’s what we did.

Are you guys still in touch with Ronald at all?

DROZD: No, he has been out of the public eye since the late ’90s. I think he lives at home, maybe? I’m not really sure. I think Wayne may be in touch with his brother? But I haven’t spoken to Ronald since the ’90s.

y'know what would be cool, is a Stephen, Kliph, Ronald album.
Or, more realistically, a Stephen and Kliph album.

It would be!

Delighted to learn via me sharing this interview that some insane person has put together a massive Lips playlist on YouTube covering the entirety (as much as is available) of the Jones era. Here's the full thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQeO0jpGJA

And here was a recommend show: "1994-10-23 - The Blind Pig, Champaign, IL. A+ soundboard, plus they open with Under Pressure."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdxBPnrWgNI

i'm glad drozd got to tell his side but jeez that interview was twice as long as it should have been

6100 words!

re-affirmed wayne can write a great song but relegates the music aspect to the on-hires.

gen x dennis deyoung

I know that Wayne gets a bad wrap nowadays, but regarding this situation I do think about “The Spiderbite Song” and how Drozd’s struggles have been there for a long time, including lying and covering up his issues. I can see how Wayne would be over it.